COLUMBUS, Ga. — After a years-long pattern of scandals and shoddy behavior, Springer Opera House producing artistic director Paul Pierce has announced he is ‘retiring’ after this year’s season.

After Pierce’s so-called ‘retirement’ begins on October 1,  he will oddly continue to work at the Springer in a newly-created ‘senior advisor’ position. Coincidentally, Pierce’s new role appears to be conveniently void of the executive authority he previously held.

Pierce’s old position will be performed by a combination of two current staff members who will simply be ‘absorbing’ Pierce’s old responsibilities as their own.

A PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR

Pierce’s retirement announcement comes after a slew of several scandals in recent years. It is difficult to see a scenario in which his pattern of treacherous behavior wasn’t a factor in his removal from authority.

During the pandemic, Pierce had made several grotesque Facebook posts displaying his anger and self-apparent totalitarian views. 

EXTREMIST OVERTONES

In a public Facebook post from July of 2021, Pierce called the general public “knuckleheads” while furiously blaming the people of Columbus for the city’s viral case rate. Pierce went on to demonize and vilify any-and-everyone who had not received the vaccine, angrily blaming them for the woes of society.

The post flagrantly displayed a sense of extremist totalitarian discrimination against anyone who didn’t meet Pierce’s personal standards for simply existing in society.

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Continuing his public display of intolerance in a Facebook comment, Pierce then continued to berate the general public by insisting they surrender their own individual bodily autonomy to meet his own personal desires while simultaneously blaming the nation’s suffering economy on those who had not received the vaccine. Pierce did this by profanely insisting the entire public must “get f**king vaccinated” or else the economy would continue to suffer.

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In an additional comment, Pierce went on to say that he did not care if human beings who had not received the vaccine lived or died, grotesquely stating that “they’ve had their chance.” Pierce then openly admitted that he cared far more about the economy than the lives of the people he was sadistically dehumanizing.

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Pierce’s chilling words are the same type of dehumanizing sentiments that have given root to various societal evils throughout history. 

Bigoted sentiments that target a specific group of people through dehumanizing speech have a tendency to spread and increase fear and panic throughout a sociological group. Through social pressure and the psychological effects of tribalism, that fear invokes hostile limbic-like behavior toward whomever has been deemed the unwanted cause of whatever perceived woe the society is fearful of. If left unchecked, that limbic-like behavior has historically resulted in the deaths of millions of innocent people throughout the world. See: The Salem Witch Trials; The Holocaust; The Holodomor; The Bosnian Genocide; et cetera. This is not hyperbole.

POLITICAL DISCRIMINATION

The following year, in July 2022, The Springer Opera House cancelled a comedy performance booked  months in advance by The Hodgetwins, alleging the comedy duo had failed to pay their deposit. However,  a leaked email sent by the Springer revealed the true reason for their cancellation was political discrimination.

That discrimination would later be uncovered to have been at the behest of Paul Pierce.

After the opera house decided to cancel the performance due to the conservative nature of its comedic content, Pierce had the Springer lie to the general public through the release of a public Facebook statement. The statement claimed the performance was cancelled due to ‘nonpayment’ of the Hodgetwins’ deposit.

The Springer’s claim of nonpayment was later proven false through a leaked email in which the Springer explicitly stated they cancelled the performance due to its conservative content. 

The following day, after being exposed to be lying about his organization’s discriminatory actions, Pierce released a second contradictory statement through a WTVM video interview in which he openly admitted the Springer cancelled the show due to its conservative content. 

Pierce then went on to delete his personal Facebook account that night.

The Springer employee who was ordered to inform the Hodgetwins of their performance’s cancellation was also politically conservative. After the Springer was exposed for its public discrimination, that same conservative employee was quickly fired from their job.  

That employee is known by the Muckraker to have been a valued employee who donated their time, money, and effort to better the lives of children who took part in the Springer’s programs. That employee was fired because of their conservative political beliefs.

That employee was fired at the behest of Paul Pierce. That employee was not the only one, either.

RACE-BASED HIRING

The discriminatory culture of the Springer under Paul Pierce’s charge had permitted Springer director and choreographer Shane Hall to post a race-based job listing for an acting role at the Springer Opera House. 

In a public Facebook post made on August 4, 2022, the listing stated the role was specifically seeking an “African American or Hispanic male.” 

The job listing was for the role of Bob Wallace in the upcoming production of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.” The discriminatory job listing was uninterested in applicants from asian, middle-eastern, white, or other ethnic backgrounds. According to the posted solicitation, only black or hispanic applicants will be considered for the employment opportunity.

According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers are prohibited from making hiring decisions that discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. 

The only exception to this rule is if national origin, religion, or sex — but not race nor color — present what is called a “bona fide occupational qualification” (BFOQ), which means the job could otherwise not be reasonably performed by someone who does not have specific characteristics. An example of this exception would be a foreign language school requiring that their instructors be native-born speakers.

Even if a job at the Springer could somehow only be reasonably performed by someone of a particular race, the law forbids it completely. As stated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the BFOQ exception only applies to national origin, religion, and sex — and only in very rare and specific circumstances. It explicitly forbids discrimination based on race entirely.

According to the EEOC:

“The protected class of race is not included in the statutory exception and clearly cannot, under any circumstances, be considered a BFOQ for any job.” 

THE MORAL OF THE STORY

Don’t be a bigot. Don’t discriminate based on race. Don’t dehumanize entire groups of people because you are scared. Don’t cost your organization millions of dollars by doing so, either.

Don’t behave like Paul Pierce. History will remember it. Forever.

Happy ReTiReMeNt, Paul. 

Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.

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